Hi, crafty friends. It’s time for a Christmas card, right? I love Rachelle Anne Miller’s Polar Bears, and I’ve made a fairly monochromatic card with a little bit of no line coloring, some ink blending, and a stamped sentiment. Super simple.
Isn’t this image the sweetest, with mama bear and her two cubs? For some reason, I love coloring polar bears, and to make them look “white” (although real polar bears aren’t really white), I always do no line coloring whenever I create cards with polar bears.
Once my coloring was complete, I made a quick mask from Post-it tape to cover up my polar bears before I used my Wintry Forest stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio along with inks from Altenew (the colors are Misty Morning, Cloudy Sky and Nimbus) to create my background.
I die cut my panel using the second largest die in the Additional A2 Layers die set from Waffle Flower Crafts, adhered it to a panel of Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink and then onto the card base.
I stamped a sentiment from the Scripty Xmas stamp set from Mama Elephant using Enchanted Evening ink from Papertrey Ink and added some white dots to the cub’s hat with a white Gelly Roll 05 pen. And that finishes the card. I decided not to add any embellishments to it.
Oh, how I love blue for Christmas cards.
Naturally, lots of blue for the coloring, too.
There’s something about the 
I printed my image on a quarter of an A4 sheet of X-Press It blending card. A4 is narrower and taller than lettersize, so my quarter panel doesn’t quite cover an A2 card front. By letting a strip of the card base showing as a result, it adds a design element to the card.
Once my coloring was complete, I ink blended Berry Sorbet and Melon Berry inks into one of the openings in the Say Anything stencil from My Favorite Things, before stamping a sentiment from the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set (also from MFT) using VersaFine Onyx Black ink.
I adhered the panel directly to the card base (Melon Berry cardstock from Papertrey Ink) and added a few confetti stars from the Rosy Glow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
The stars are matte gold, but they still shine in the light. And because they’re flat, and everything else on this card is also flat, this card is very mail friendly, which is a rarity for me.
Quick, simple color palette.
These guys are from the 
Onto the card base, I ink blended Fresh Leaf and Eastern Sky inks from Altenew to create a soft background that went from green to blue. I then added splatters of my sheer shimmer spray from Imagine. It’s not really visible in the photos, but in real life it adds a bit of sparkle.
I die cut three circle openings in a quarter piece of white cardstock and mounted it with foam tape to the card base.
I added foam tape to the back of my critters, popping each of them into the circle openings. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from InkyWings onto a piece of Mushroom cardstock from Concord & 9th, mounted it on foam tape and added it to the card.
To finish off the card I added sequins from the Rosy Glow mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Such a simple color palette for this one. Aside from the colors of the fur, which differ for each bunny, I used the same colors throughout.
I’ve colored this image before, but never using blue for his overalls. That feels crazy, but it’s also true. I obviously used blue this time, and gave him blond hair too. I stamped a sentiment from the Double Scoop of Cute stamp set from My Favorite Things, using Blue Beyond ink, also from My Favorite Things.
On the sides of the panel, I used a die from the Stitched Borders die set from Lawn Fawn to create a tiny bit of interest.
On a quarter piece of Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things, I repeatedly stamped the ice cream cones in the Double Scoop of Cute stamp set and white heat embossed them all. I adhered the blue panel to a card base and mounted my colored panel on top using foam tape.
To finish off the card I added three sequins from the Denim mix of sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I tend to put my embellishments near the sentiment, it’s a good way to draw the eye to the sentiment.
It doesn’t get much cuter than a boy with a puppy. And I wish the temps were good enough for ice cream outdoors. We still have snow on the ground, it’s cold and there’s more snow in the forecast. I want summer, when’s it coming?
Lots of Copics despite a very limited color palette. It happens.
I colored the ice cream with my Copics, fussy cut it leaving a thin white border and put it aside while I worked on the rest of the card. Using the Watercolor Stripes stencil from Altenew, I ink blended stripes using Melon Berry ink from Papertrey Ink, going heavy handed at the bottom with a soft gradient toward the top of my A2 card base.
I used the Hand-Lettered Happy Birthday die from My Favorite Things to die cut the word happy from white cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I then did a little stamp surgery, by combining two sentiments in the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things to stamp a sub sentiment to the lower part of the die cut word. I then stamped the same sentiment directly on my card base, still using Melon Berry Ink. I die cut two more of the happy to glue behind the stamped one, stacked all three together and adhered it to the card front, lining up the stamping on the die cut with the stamping on the card base. I then mounted the ice cream on foam squares, added a bit of Glossy Accents to the heart and some enamel dots from the Cool Summer Night pack from Altenew for a little bit of added interest and color.
Very limited color palette.
I used the 
I wanted a pastel look for my card, and this is probably the lightest wash of color I’ve ever done with my Copics. Except for E25 on the guinea pig, I’ve only used markers ending in numbers that are 3 or lower. That’s super light for someone who doesn’t shy away from using markers ending with 9. Once the coloring was complete, I used a black glaze pen to create shine in their eyes, and I went over it with a dot of white Gelly Roll 05 on the bunny.
From a piece of Winter Wisteria cardstock from Papertrey Ink, I die cut a circle opening and also used a faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things to create a little bit of extra interest around the edge of the panel, before mounting it on foam tape.
I used a die from Papirdesign to make my God påske (Happy Easter in Norwegian) sentiment, and made it dimensional by stacking four white die cuts on top of each other, before finishing off the card with a few crystals from Papirdesign that match the Winter Wisteria cardstock nicely.
Here it is, the softest color palette ever.
I colored the image with Copics and fussy cut around it, leaving a white border. This image is pretty easy to fussy cut, so it didn’t take long. I’m trying to get out of my standard “full panel with cluster” mode, and fussy cutting the image gives me endless possibilities.
I needed something in the background behind my image, and decided to create a circle stencil to ink blend into. I used Distress Ink from Ranger in Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade, before I removed the stencil and looked through my stash of background stamps I could use to add some more interest. I wound up with a mixture of stamps from Inkido, Tim Holtz and My Favorite Things, and used Distress Ink once again for the stamping. This time Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed for a bit more of an intense yellow on top of the ink blending.
I mounted the image using foam tape, and die cut the word happy from the Bold Happy Birthday die set from My Favorite Things. I die cut four of each letter and stacked them for a dimensional look, overlapping them on my card to make them fit.
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Anything-but-Basic Birthday Wishes stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a piece of Caribbean Sea cardstock, also from MFT. The sentiment actually says Commencing Happy dance, but since I already had a diecut happy, I only needed the first and last word for my card. I added three additional strips of cardstock behind the words for dimension, and finished off the card with a few enamel dots. The teal ones are from the Cool Summer Nights pack from Altenew, the orange ones from a Halloween pack from Papirdesign. I also added a dot of black Glaze pen to the kittens’ eyes and the boy’s eyes, then a white dot using the Gelly Roll 05 from Sakura once the black had dried on the boy.
This 
I stamped a sentiment from the Definisjoner stamp set from Norsk Stempelblad AS with Melon Berry ink from Papertrey Ink, chopped off a bit of the panel and adhered it to a card base I created from Melon Berry cardstock, also from Papertrey Ink.
I added a couple of sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. The larger sequin is from the Sweet Shop mix, the smaller one from the Iced Sherbet mix.
Super simple color palette.
Aren’t these bunnies cute? I paired the three bunnies in the Teacup Bunnies stamp set with a digital sentiment. The sentiment will be a freebie digi, along with a few others in the same style and sub sentiments to pair with it.
I colored the bunnies and letters with Copics and did some fussy cutting, leaving a thin white border to preserve the “fuzzies” that are part of the signature Lili of the Valley style. I used a black glaze pen for their eyes to make them pop and shine, and once dry, added a tiny white dot to each eye using a white Gelly Roll 05 pen.
I used the Crystal Distortion Embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp on a piece of Lemon Tart cardstock from Papertrey Ink to create a little bit of interest in the background. Below the yellow panel, I added a strip of Sprout cardstock from Concord & 9th for a little bit of extra green.
I adhered the cardstock pieces to a white top fold card base and mounted the teacup bunnies and sentiment on foam tape for dimension, before finishing off with a few enamel dots from the Tropical Forest set from Altenew.
I’m using the new 
I adopted Laura Bassen’s new coloring motto for 2023 for this card: “no muss no fuss coloring”. This was very simple, a few grays and a little bit of pink for the cheeks, the inner ears and the belly. I used a craft knife to cut out the interior of the balloon and printed another panel with just the balloon in the same size. I colored that balloon in green (thanks for the color suggestion, Liz) and added foam strips along the outer edge of the balloon, before filling it with tiny iridescent stars from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts. I then added a piece of acetate on top to complete my shaker, and adhered the koala panel to the shaker, making sure to line up the window with my shaker heart balloon as best I could.
I added foam tape on the back of the rest of the panel and adhered it to a top fold card base. The card base is actually Stamper’s Select White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, but I adhered a panel of Clover cardstock from Concord & 9th on top to create the green front. The color matched with my green balloon, but I don’t have unlimited amounts of Concord & 9th cardstock, so I’m trying not to use it all at once. Also, it’s a thinner cardstock, and not sturdy enough on its own to hold the weight of lots of foam tape and a shaker.
Using the largest of the dies in the Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames die set from My Favorite Things, I die cut a frame from Soft Stone cardstock from Papertrey Ink. This is such a perfect soft grey, I love it. I finished off the card with a few enamel hearts from Altenew, from the Green Fields pack and the Rock Collection.
The iridescent stars inside the shaker heart really catch the light nicely.
Super simple color palette, as I mentioned.
Papirmølla 